SBIR Phase I: Portable Production Process for Icy Regoliths by Vapor Deposition

SBIR 第一阶段：通过气相沉积生产冰风化层的便携式生产工艺

• 批准号: 2013842
• 负责人: Vincent Roux
• 金额: $ 22.5万
• 依托单位: OFF PLANET RESEARCH L.L.C.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-06-01 至 2022-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2013842&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Portable; Production; Process

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to advance the use of planetary resources. The ice on the Moon and Mars has been deemed “the oil of space” because it will be the primary source of rocket fuel, breathable oxygen, drinkable water, and other valuable commodities. These mixtures of soil and ice have unique qualities not fully understood, partially because the ice is a cocktail of water and other chemicals. The proposed project will develop technologies for synthetic versions of these materials, to advance the understanding and use of these natural resources. This SBIR Phase I project proposes to create the technology to accurately replicate the mixtures of ice and soils on the Moon. Lunar ice is a mixture of water and other highly reactive frozen gases, such as ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane, ethane, and methanol. This project will create artificial lunar soil to be super-cooled in a vacuum, and mixtures of gases and water vapor will be frozen onto the grains in the soil under carefully controlled conditions. The equipment and processes proposed will attempt to replicate the natural formation processes believed to take place on the Moon and other worlds. The ice/soil mixtures on other worlds appear in many different forms, including mixed soil and ice crystals, globules of grains frozen together, and sheets. This technology will be create realistic versions of the many types of these exotic materials by varying how the ices are formed. The ability to create these ices will increase the understanding of the origins of icy worlds, the behavior and chemistry of ultra-cold gases in very low pressures, and the nature of ice/soil mixtures throughout the solar system.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该小企业创新研究 (SBIR) 第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是促进行星资源的利用，月球和火星上的冰被视为“太空石油”，因为它将成为主要来源。火箭燃料、呼吸氧气、饮用水和其他有价值的商品的这些土壤和冰的混合物具有尚未完全了解的独特性质，部分原因是冰是水和其他化学品的混合物。拟议的项目将开发合成版本的技术。这些材料，以促进理解和使用SBIR 第一阶段提出了创建精确复制月球上冰和土壤混合物的技术的项目，月球冰是水和其他高反应性冷冻气体的混合物，例如氨、硫化氢、硫。该项目将制造在真空中过冷的人造月球土壤，并冻结气体和水蒸气的混合物。所提出的设备和工艺将尝试复制月球和其他世界上发生的自然形成过程，包括以许多不同的形式出现的冰/土壤混合物。混合土壤和冰晶、冻结在一起的颗粒球和薄片，这项技术将通过改变冰的形成方式来创造出许多类型的奇异材料的真实版本。冰的起源世界、极低压力下超冷气体的行为和化学，以及整个太阳系冰/土壤混合物的性质。该奖项是 NSF 的法定使命，通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的评估，被认为值得支持。影响审查标准。